Temari's Ai
by Riko Ai Kumagai
Summary: Temari finds a dog and begs her brothers to keep it. How will a dog effect them all?
1. Lost

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any characters.**

Temari walked down the road in the sun and smiled. She closed her eyes.

"What a great day," she thought. "Kankuro and Gaara's arguing was getting pretty annoying."  
Her brothers had started arguing over basically nothing, and then they started making death threats, putting each other's attacks down, and other things. Finally, she'd thrown her arms up in the air and said, "I give up, I'm outta here," and walked out of the house. Her brothers had stopped just long enough to see her leaving and gone back to arguing.  
After about another five minutes, she heard something rustling some bushes. She glanced over at it, and said, "Who's in the bush?" She started to walk toward it, and then...a dog came bounding out at her.  
Temari gasped and fell over with the heavy impact of the dog against her legs and stomach.  
"A- a dog?" she stammered. "No, it's not even a dog, it's just a puppy!"  
A very cute one, for a matter of fact. She was a pretty big puppy, with big brown eyes and a long tongue and a tail which must have been pretty muscular, as fast as it was going.  
"You're pretty cute," Temari said, laughing. "Where are you from?"  
The puppy only shook its tail some more.  
"Are you lost?"  
It cocked its head to one side and looked at her with its big eyes.  
"I guess so. Why don't you come home with me? Maybe you can keep the peace at my house."  
She picked the puppy up and carried him home with her. She even gave her a name- Ai.  
"Gaara is just going to love the fact I called you Ai," she said, and laughed to herself.  
Finally, she got home. Temari let herself in and looked around. She would have thought that the fight had just moved somewhere else, but she couldn't hear Kankuro's shouting. Gaara never yelled, it was always just quiet snapping.  
"Kankuro's? Gaara?" Temari yelled. "I got a surprise for you guys!"  
She heard Kankuro's heavy footsteps coming from the stairs.  
"What is it?" he asked. He looked at her, but didn't see the puppy- Temari had hidden her behind her back.  
"Guess."  
"I have no idea. Just tell me."  
"Where's Gaara, first?"  
"He's sle- I don't know where he is."  
"DID YOU SAY HE'S SLEEPING!" Temari shouted. Ai, frightened by her loud voice, dropped down and ran into the middle of the floor.  
"A dog?" Kankuro asked. "Why a dog?"  
"DID YOU SAY THAT G AARA IS SLEEPING!" she shouted again. "HOW COULD YOU LET YOUR OWN BROTHER SLEEP? YOU KNOW HOW BAD IT IS FOR HIM!"  
"I don't know if it's bad, have you seen him lately? He's exhausted-"  
"OF COURSE IT'S BAD, KANKURO! IF GAARA ISN'T GAARA WHEN HE WAKES UP, I'LL KILL YOU!"  
"What is he's nice when he wakes up?"  
"I'LL KILL YOU! OR HE WILL!"  
Temari ran up the stairs as quickly as she could and got to Kankuro's room. Since Gaara didn't sleep, he didn't have a bad in his room, so when he wanted somewhere to lie down and relax, it was either on the couch or one of their beds. But he wasn't on the couch, so he was either Kankuro's room or her's. But Gaara wasn't there, so she automatically ran to her room as if it were for her life. But Gaara wasn't there either.  
"GAARA!"  
She couldn't think of anywhere else he would be, so she ran to his room. There was Gaara, dead asleep. He wasn't moving, he would have looked dead if not for his hands gripping the sand floor. Temari ran into his room and shook him. He didn't wake up, but his head rolled around on his shoulders.  
"Gaara, wake up. Gaara!"  
He wouldn't wake up though, so she had no choice- she slapped him across the face.  
"Wow, what a nice big sister you are," Kankuro's voice came from the doorway.  
"I'm nicer than you are, letting him fall asleep like this!" Temari snapped. Gaara blinked and looked down at his sister's death grip on his arms.  
"Temari, what are you doing?" he asked.  
"Waking you up! You know you can't fall asleep!"  
"How long was I out for?" he asked.  
"I don't know. How long was he out for, Kankuro?" asked Temari.  
"About five minutes."  
Gaara sighed. He looked even more tired than before. "Kankuro, you'll be lucky if I let you get away with just your fingers broken," he threatened.  
"Whatever." Kankuro turned and walked away. Temari stood up and remembered Ai.  
"Oh, Gaara, I have something to show you. Kankuro, get back here for a second!"  
Kankuro returned and said, "What?"  
"Stay in here for a sec, I'll be right back." She walked out of the room and looked around for a second before finding the puppy running through the sandy floor. She picked her up and took her back to Gaara's room.  
"This," she said, "is Ai."  
Kankuro looked at Gaara and laughed. "Ai! She named it after your face!"  
"Shut up," said Gaara. His eyes almost seemed to have fallen half way shut so that he was squinting furiously.  
Ai wagged her tail. Kankuro smiled and Gaara stared.  
"Isn't she cute?" said Temari.  
"She will be," said Gaara. His sand started to come from his gourd towards the little dog.  
"Gaara!"  
The sand pulled back into the gourd. "Give the dog a chance," said Temari. "Please?"  
Gaara sighed and blinked. "If the dog comes near me, it's dead."


	2. Doginduced Insanity

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except Ai.**

Temari smiled widely.

"Thank you, Gaara!" she exclaimed, stretching the word 'thank' out. She grabbed Gaara and hugged him, and he pulled away, disgusted.

"Hug bad," Kankuro muttered teasingly under his breath.

"Kankuro shut up or you will never be able to play with your puppet again!"

"Whatever," his brother repeated.

Temari picked up Ai and cuddled her. Ai put her head under her chin and cuddled back.

Kankuro and Gaara finally seemed to have found something they agreed on: they rolled their eyes at Temari and muttered, "Weirdo." They turned and left the room together.

Things returned to almost-normal as Gaara sat in a corner and did nothing but stare and Kankuro just sat around. After about half an hour though, Kankuro could be heard running through the house shouting curses at the dog. Ai was barking loudly, which jerked Gaara from his silence.

"Kankuro, baka," he said furiously as his brother charged past him with the dog at his heels. "What are you doing?"

"Your damn sister's dog is trying to chew me!" he exclaimed.

"She's _my _sister now!" Gaara exclaimed after Kankuro as he turned a corner. "You've known her for longer!"

The only answer he got was "Damn dog, let go of my foot!"

Gaara sighed. "Baka." He shook his head and stood up. He walked around to find Temari.

"Temari...?" he called. "Temari!"

He walked into the kitchen and found his sister cooking dinner. It didn't smell bad, but it didn't smell good either.

"What's for dinner?" he asked innocently.

"Soup and garlic bread."

"Oh joy," said Gaara sarcastically. "What a great dinner."

"Well if you think you could do better than you cook."

Gaara blinked at her. "Do I look like I belong in a kitchen?" he asked.

Temari sighed. "No."

"Thank you."

Gaara walked away again, and got collided with by Kankuro. He was knocked over backward and fell onto his back with Kankuro on top of him. Ai leapt on Kankuro's back and started barking in his ear.

"God...Temari!"

"What, Kankuro?" asked Temari, walking the five steps out of the kitchen into the hallway where her brothers were now lying.

"Get your dog a, off of me, and b, to shut up!"

Temari sighed and laughed as she picked up Ai. "Did you attack Kankuro? Good girl."

Kankuro stood up off of Gaara, who was still lying on his back, twitching slightly from the crushing weight of his brother and his gourd being pushed into his back. "You need to lose weight," he gasped and stood up.

"You need to watch where you're going!"

"You need to shut up before you die."

"You need to stop being a brat!"

"Cat man."

"Emo child!"

Temari turned around and walked back to the kitchen carrying Ai as her brothers got into a heated insult fest. She set Ai down and returned to the soup, which was slowly thickening. The puppy bounded around, and slid across the floor and into the wall. Temari listened for a second to see how her brothers were progressing:

"You're like a little kid, all you can do is play with puppets."

"You know what your special little talent is? Ever since you were little you've been better than everyone at making sand castles, chibi!"

She sighed and shook her head. "Boys," she sighed, and stirred the soup.


	3. Gaara's Little Trick

**DISCLAIMER: I already told you, I don't own it but I own Ai. **

"Ah, silence," sighed Temari as she sat back and ruffled the fur on the top of the puppy's head. Her brothers' argument had finally ended when Gaara's sand had started to flare up, and Kankuro had automatically backed down. She was pretty sure Kankuro was asleep…but she didn't know what Gaara was doing. Ai suddenly jumped down and started to roll on her back on the sandy floor.

"What are you doing?" she muttered to the dog. She sighed and closed her eyes. She was about to fall asleep when she heard her brother's voice.

"Hey Temari? I-"

The girl's eyes snapped open and she looked at her brother. She felt bad whenever she slept in front of him, and she always avoided it at all costs.

"Gomen," Gaara muttered, and he walked away.

"No, Gaara, it's okay," Temari said after him. "What's up?"

Gaara just shook his head and walked toward the kitchen. His sister sighed and leaned her head back again. She opened her eyes to see Ai's tail disappear around the corner after Gaara and she winced.

About thirty seconds later, Gaara walked back out of the kitchen with a glass of water.

"Where's Ai?" Temari asked slowly.

Gaara pulled his gourd off of his back and reached inside. When he withdrew his hand, he had Ai in it.

"Is this what you're looking for?" he asked, in his same monotone voice.

Temari smiled and nodded. Her brother tossed the dog over to her and sighed.

"I told you," he said, "if the dog comes near me, it's dead."

"Gomen, nii-san," she said.

Gaara sighed again, then nodded. He walked away and disappeared up the stairs. Temari stroked her dog again.

"Don't worry about big scary Gaara-nii san. But don't get on his bad side either because he will actually kill you with his sabuku sousou move," she told Ai. She imitated Gaara when she said, 'sabaku sousou' and hoped he hadn't seen her. Considering she didn't see him anywhere, she didn't think so.

After about twenty minutes, Gaara came charging downstairs, surprisingly without his gourd on his back. He ran into the kitchen and came back with a cherry, whipped cream, hot fudge, crackers, and a spoon.

"Temari, when did we get all this junk food?" he asked. But he didn't wait around for an answer, and hurried back upstairs.

Temari stared after her brother, her eyes wide, but then she shook her head and looked away.

A few minutes later, Gaara came halfway down the stairs and said, "Temari come here you've got to see this!"

Temari got up and walked up the stairs. She followed Gaara to Kankuro's room and looked inside, unsure of what she was about to see. She glanced in and saw:

Kankuro was asleep, and his face had been cleared of the usual markings, undoubtedly by Gaara. In their place, was hot fudge in basically the same pattern. His right hand was hanging off of his bed, full of whipped cream and a cherry in the center. Crackers had been sprinkled into his eyelashes. A spoon had been balanced on his nose. Gaara stood over his brother and gently scratched his face. Temari put her hand over her mouth in shock as Kankuro moved his right hand, full of whipped cream and with a cherry in the middle, and smacked it into the middle of his face. Kankuro opened his eyes and blinked. Ai jumped onto his stomach and started to lick his face.

"Gaara."

Temari backed slowly out of the room.

"You are so dead."

Gaara followed Temari out of the room, Ai still licking the oldest brother's face, and threw himself into a wall before sliding down and sighing. Kankuro could be heard shouting in his room.


	4. Now you've done it, Ai

**DISCLAIMER: I own none of the characters except for Ai, the little dog. she's so cute in my mind...**

Gaara sighed and watched Kankuro as he ran around the house chasing Ai and yelling at Gaara when he passed. Temari was sitting on a chair watching them and found their antics hilarious. She knew Gaara probably found this funny too and wished he would just _laugh_...but of course he wouldn't. There was no use in wishing it, ne?

"You damn dog get back here! Gaara I'm going to get you for this!" Kankuro shouted as he ran by. Ai was bounding ahead looking very happy, she almost seemed to be smiling, similar to Akamaru.

"You can try," Gaara muttered to his brother.

Temari smiled at her 'family' and the new addition. 'I'm glad I found little Ai,' she thought.

"Pretty soon this giant rat is going to do something to piss you off, Gaara," Kankuro said as he ran by this time in the opposite direction. "You watch! And then Temari is going to have to fight for her aiko inu here!"

Temari sighed and closed her eyes. "Kankuro..." she started. But her brother ignored her and kept chasing after the little dog. Finally Kankuro grabbed the dog and held it by the scruff of it's neck. Looking around, he noticed Gaara wasn't anywhere to be found. When he finally did find him, he was sitting on the floor and staring at the wall, not paying any attention to his siblings. So Kankuro snuck up to Gaara's room, and put Ai in it. He shut the door and took off.

After about a minute, the poor dog got bored. She walked around, sniffing, and rolling at times on the sandy floor, and chased her tail but got bored of that so moved on to exploring.

Gaara noticed the dog hadn't made a sound in about two hours. "Temari," he called. "Where is that dog you found?"

Temari stuck her head into the room Gaara was in and said, "I don't know. But I noticed she's been pretty quiet..." She shrugged and pulled her head back into the room.

However, Gaara was still fairly suspicous. That dog had to be up to no good. He didn't know what that little rat was capable of, but it had to be capable of a lot. So he stood up and walked around slowly, looking carefully. He saw Kankuro sitting on his bed in his room and asked, "What did you do with that dog?""Nothing," Kankuro said innocently. "Why?"

"Because I can't find her," Gaara told him. "And you were the last to have her. That's why." He walked off again, searching around some more. As he passed his room, he picked up some faint scratching and whining noises. Noises that a dog would make.

"Oh Kami,"Gaara thought. He pushed the door open and looked around. The dog was buried in his closet, clothes on the ground, the dog's tail stuck high up in the air and it's head down. Gaara walked inside and found that his foot fell through a hole and he looked down: the dog had dug a three feet deep hole in his room.

"Temari," Gaara muttered. "TE-MA-RI!" he was shouting at that point. "YOUR DOG IS DEAD!" His sand roared up out of his gourd and rose in a half circle around Gaara. Ai looked up at the boy and it's eyes widened. It yelped loudly and took off out of the room just as the sand attacked the spot it had been sitting. The sand changed pace and followed after the dog. It was like water, smashing into walls and then falling to the ground and rushing forward in a great, powerful current. Ai was running for her life. Kankuro had come out of his room and saw Gaara attempting to kill the dog. He looked shocked for a moment, then guilty. Seeing his brother's face, Gaara knew it was Kankuro who had locked the dog in his room in the first place. Temari was standing in the middle of the living room, wondering what the noise was. Ai went racing past her and her head followed her, but when she turned back to face front, she saw Gaara's sand roaring by.

"GAARA!" she shrieked. "ONEGAI! DON'T!"

But the sand didn't stop. It just rushed forward with greater power. And Gaara came walking forward slowly after his sand, looking angry.

"Your dog," he muttered. "Your dog...go see what it did to my room..."

Temari blinked and ran forward. Gaara called after her warning her about the hole in his room. Her foot got trapped in it anyway. She was looking around his room and said, "Kami..." She pulled her foot out and ran out, found Ai cornered, and ran to her. Temari embraced the dog and closed her eyes, and the sand stopped.

"Please don't," she said again to Gaara, who was standing at the threshold of the kitchen where Ai had been cornered.

"Why?" Gaara asked. "The inu destroyed my room."

"Because, I found her, I don't even know if she's mind. Do it as a favor to your sister!"

Gaara sighed. "Fine. This time. But if she does it again...she's dead."

Temari nodded and said, "Okay. Arigatou."

Her brother walked away and she sighed and slumped against the wall, Ai quivering in her arms.


	5. Ai Is Actually Mari?

Even after five minutes, Temari and Ai were still sitting there and quivering.

"So you've seen what my brother can do," she whispered. "But I won't let him kill you."

She closed her eyes for a second, then opened them and put the dog down.

"All right, I have work to do," she sighed. She put the dog down and stood up. Ai shook herself off and ran off again. Gaara had locked himself in his room; Temari had heard the door slam. Well, the longer he was in there the better.

She wondered what had happened to Kankuro. Maybe if Gaara didn't get to him first, she'd get to kill him.

"Kankuro, you dumbass," she muttered angrily. "Such a stupid thing to do...you don't take revenge on Gaara."

She sighed again. Her brother was so crazy, it wasn't even funny. It had never been.

The girl opened a cabinet looking for a special food for dinner and found that she was out. As she went through ingredients, she realized there were many she didn't have.

"Damn," she grumbled. "I have to go get some things."

So she grabbed a jacket and stepped out of the door, Ai at her heels, shouting to her brothers that she was going shopping and not caring if they heard her or not.

As Temari trudged down the road, she spoke to her dog.

"That stupid boy," she said. "Why would he try to take revenge on Gaara? Did he think he wouldn't get caught? Of course he would! How could he not? Gaara didn't do it, and I didn't do it, and who else could have? You didn't lock yourself in there!"

The girl crossed her arms angrily. Ai realized Temari's emotion and yapped. Temari loosened up and smiled.

"You're so kawaii," she laughed. "Daisuke."

She leaned down and ruffled the top of the dog's head. The dog pressed herself into the girl's hand.

After a few minutes, the two reached the main part of the village and Temari went into a store, tying Ai out in front of it.

"Let's see..." she muttered, searching through the items. "I need this...and...a-ha."

She grabbed a spice she was missing, and vegetables, and rice.

"There we go."

She paid for the food and walked outside, untying Ai again.

As they walked back to their house, Temari noticed a sign. Glancing at it, she realized it was a 'missing dog' poster.

Pulling it down off of the pole, she saw that the picture was one of Ai.

'Has a black nose and black paws, with a white spot on one of the pads.'

Temari looked over the bottom of Ai's paws and noticed that there was indeed a white spot in the center of one.

"So your name is actually Mari?" she said to the dog.

Ai- or Mari, apparently- yapped and wagged her tail at her name.

"Wow," Temari muttered. "I guess I should get you back to your owners, no?"

The dog just looked at her with inquisitive eyes.

"Well, let's go. I'll get in touch with your people tomorrow."

The pair returned home and Temari made the dinner. She fed Ai, telling her brothers that she'd found out that Ai belonged to someone.

"So when are you going to give her back?" asked Kankuro, taking a bite.

"Tomorrow," Temari told him.

Gaara didn't say anything. But he looked almost slightly relieved that the dog was going to be out of their lives forever. But he also noticed that his sister didn't look happy about this, and as much as he said he didn't care about her, she made his food and took care of the house. So he didn't like it when she was upset and didn't do anything.

Well, that was his excuse.

"She'll be someone else's problem," he said, with his version of cheering someone up.

"Ano...Gaara..." Kankuro started.

"Nani?" Gaara muttered, taking a bite of food.

"Nevermind," Kankuro said, shaking his head.

Temari sighed and answered Gaara's statement. "I guess you're right. But I got attached to her."

Gaara just shrugged. "Well, if she's not yours..."

"I know."

Temari sighed once again and finished her dinner. She took her plate to the sink and Kankuro brought his and Gaara brought his after Kankuro.

The next day, Temari grabbed the sign.

'I guess I should hurry up, and get it over with,' she thought.

The girl took the phone and called the number on the poster. A young girl answered the phone, and her voice sounded upset.

"Moshi mo," she said.

"I found your dog," Temari said automatically.

"You did!" shouted the girl. Temari held the phone away from her ear due to the volume. "Thank you!"

"No problem. I've had her for a few days but I saw the poster yesterday."

"Is she okay?" the girl asked.

"Aa. She's great."

"Well, I'll come to get her in a few minutes."

"Okay."

"Thanks again!"

"No problem. Again," Temari said into the phone. Then she hung up.

Fifteen minutes later, the girl, who was about eight, showed up with her parents at the door. Gaara answered it.

As soon as he saw the three of them, Gaara automatically turned away, yelling, "Temari, it's for you."

Temari rushed to the door, Ai bounding after her.

"Mari!" shouted the girl. The dog pounced onto the girl, licking her face.

"Arigatou gozaimasu," the mother said to Temari. "We've missed her so much."

"No problem," Temari said, for the third time. "She was great to have around."

The parents nodded and the family walked away. Temari watched them for a while before closing the door.

Gaara and Kankuro were fighting again, and the girl sighed.

"Back to normal," she muttered, and walked to her room.

**OWARI!**

**YATTA!**

**This was fun to write, I got a ton of reviews, thanks to everyone who did so. Anyone else who reads this, review! The story is done, so if you liked or disliked it review! I will know if you didn't. Any authors who read this: you should know what I mean. **


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